Tale
by BNVshark
Summary: Codo never asked to be thrust into a huge adventure regarding giant government coverups or Forbidden Histories, but after after an event that involves a factory-load of missing people and a rather shady girl, well, his life won't ever be quite the same.
1. A New World

**Ingrained**

**Chapter 1: New World**

_Earth. It seems like there's always some war or plague ravaging its surface._

_On this world exist creatures with marvelous power, Pokémon._

_They come in all shapes and sizes. Round, tall, short, light, heavy. It seems like there are more types of Pokémon out there than people. Humans use these creatures for nearly everything, and over the years have made a sort of friendship with them. We've learned much about them, but it seems like some of them are still purposefully hiding secrets from us…_

_This new world has a clean, energy efficient, power source. In a few fissures located around the world lie special flowers called Terra Vitae. This plant can be processed into many different forms and the energy that can be extracted from its stems is used to power everything, from small buildings to huge coliseums. People now rely solely on the power that this plant gives off._

* * *

A girl with shoulder length blonde hair looked upon a computer monitor inside a room with all sorts of flashing buttons and gadgets lining the metallic walls around her. She looked inquisitively at the screen as a small green gauge began scaling upwards, turning from green to red. The girl looked to the Misdreavous to her left, who had the same tense expression, and back to the computer, squinting to make sure that her eyes weren't deceiving her.

She looked too young to be the operator of this complex machine but, due to the three people strewn around the room in beaten heaps, it was safe to assume that she had broken in forcefully.

"No, I don't get it, why is this happening?"

* * *

It would just another day for Codo. He sighed as he walked out of his apartment; hand awkwardly in his pocket as he slowly stepped out into the cold. Pressing his black hair down, he looked at the sun, which was still low in the horizon. The ground was frozen with frost and, to shield himself from the cold, he zipped up his jacket. How he hated Paternica Town. Those people just _had_ to send him up to the mountains of Sinnoh to start his internship at the clinic, didn't they?

Whatever, he sighed and continued on his way, almost instinctually checking his pocket for his belongings. Pokéball? Check. Money? Check. I.D card? Extra double check. He'd be damned if he left his I.D card behind again. Last time he left it, he had to walk all the way back home to retrieve it, only to be told that, because he was late, they had called someone in to take his place for the day.

In his grumbling, he failed to realize that he had already reached the hospital. He pulled out his I.D card and scanned it through a vertical slot. Walking past the security droid without a problem, he stepped into the changing room, only to leave seconds later wearing a doctor's coat and stethoscope around his neck.

"Hey Donna, how's it go?" He grabbed a clipboard from the counter. The woman in question looked up and smiled.

"About time you showed up." She talked in a rather sassy tone, and Codo liked that, it reminded him of home. "We're a little backed up at the moment, you mind taking care of a patient on your own?"

He looked at the secretary with wide eyes. "Uh, yeah. But, are you sure, I've only been here for a month."

"Don't worry sweetie, I'm sure you'll do fine." Without looking up from her computer screen she reached towards a stack of papers to her left and picked up the top sheet, handing it to Codo without another word.

With a slightly exasperated moan he went on his way to the patient's room. Knowing his luck, he'd probably get some guy with the most random sickness, and him failing to help someone would only fuel the tempers of those older doctors who had constantly referred to him as 'that college kid.'

He ended his thoughts once he reached Room 5A, where his patient was. With one more outward sigh, he opened the door, to see a man with dripping wet clothes lying face down against the floor. Not a second passed before Codo rushed to help the man into a nearby chair. "Sir, are you okay," he asked, vigorously patting the man on his shoulder.

The man grumbled, his head turned to the floor. "The factory… the factory…"

He was talking about the facility just a few blocks away where they processed the Terra Vitae plant to make it useable for energy conversion. Codo had seen the building a few times, nothing seemed too strange or unsafe about it, and the building was surrounded by a large steel gate that was always guarded by armed men, so it wasn't like some madman with a gun could've easily gotten inside.

"Sir, what happened? Is anyone else hurt?" Codo took the man's pulse. His heart was beating irregularly fast. He took the man's temperature next and impatiently waited for the little machine to beep.

50 degrees Fahrenheit? That couldn't have been right.

He popped the medical instrument back into the man's mouth and waited once more. The thermometer read 49 degrees this time.

"Can you see anything?" He gently nudged the man's head up, only to fall back in surprise once he caught a glimpse of the man's eyes. They were dark blue, even what would be the whites of his eyes were stained as blue as the ocean.

Codo didn't know what to do. He had never even _heard_ of anything like this, much less read it in his book. The next thing he knew, he ran out of the room, calling for help from someone –anyone- who could help. The older doctors, who had been darting around between their other rooms all passed him annoyed glances before going to the room that housed the man. He didn't stop running, he charged outside, into the chilly early morning air.

And the next thing Codo knew, he was standing in front of the gate of the factory, which was left unguarded, for whatever reason. He looked around, to make sure that there weren't any guards around and, with cautious steps, walked into the building.

The lobby was bright and, like the entrance, eerily quiet. Codo yelled to see if anyone was around, though the only answer he got was his own echo. He quietly walked over to the desk in the center of the room. A flowerpot lay smashed on the floor, and what looked like a puddle of coffee was spilled over a stack of papers. The computer screen was still on, which gave Codo the impression that whoever had been previously working here had been forced out. He took another look around and decided to continue on, curious to find out exactly what had happened.

He moved on to the next door, which automatically slid open for him. He found himself in a long hallway, brightly lit by the little glass squares scattered on the floor. His steps resonated throughout the hall as he walked, and Codo suddenly got a chill up his spine. He knew that factories like this one were never left unoccupied. _Something_ must've happened to the people here, the question, of course, was what.

"Are we almost done with the cleanup?" A voice asked from behind a door.

"Yeah," another voice replied. "But I've been hearing that there's some kid running around here, screwing everything up. Boss says we can't leave 'til we get rid of 'em."

Codo could hear the two voices shuffling to the door, and the next thing he knew, they were both standing in front of him. They both wore gray suits with black, visor-like, sunglasses perched upon their heads.

"Speaking of the devil." The man on the left reached for his sunglasses, pulling them over his eyes. "We were just talking about you." The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a small sphere that fit into the palm of his hand. He pressed a button on the center and the ball quickly grew to about the size of a baseball. With a casual throwing motion, the ball opened up, revealing, after the quick burst of light, a poochyena, the small hyena pokemon.

Codo did the same, reaching into his pocket to retrieve his Pokéball. He gulped, it'd been a while since he last battled, and he had no idea how strong his opponents were. "Buizel!" He threw his ball as well. This time, an orange, mammalian creature emerged from the light. The buizel stood on her hind feet, her two front paws crossed. The Pokémon had a rather indifferent expression on her face as she looked at the small hyena before her. When she looked back at her trainer, she scowled, growling in disgust.

"Yeah, um…" Codo scratched his head as he thought about what to say to the otter. "Sorry, about not bringing you out yesterday… And the day before, too, I guess. But, we need to beat these guys, okay?"

The Pokémon nodded, almost bitterly disappointed in her trainer, and turned back towards her opponents.

"Poochyena," the man started. "Use **Bite**!"

Immediately, the black hyena charged forward, but before its small jaws could clamp onto the buizel, she materialized a thick coating of ice on her left paw and landed a left hook on her opponent, who was sent flying to the wall.

"Golbat, take care of it!" The other man sent his Pokéball flying, this time a Golbat emerged. "**Crunch**,"

"Buizel," Codo shouted. "Use **Ice Punch** again!"

The Pokémon looked back at her trainer and scowled again. Instead of using her commanded move, Buizel stood still, her two tails beginning to glow a bright white. With two flicks, white shockwaves were sent flying and collided with the bat, which fell to the ground, defeated.

"Damn it," the man reached into a holster he had strapped on his belt and pulled out a gun. The other man did the same. One gun was pointed at the buizel, who stood impatiently, and the other at Codo, who was frozen in shock. "You're done."

Codo could see both men getting ready to squeeze their triggers, and, in fear, Codo closed his eyes.

"Misdreavus, **Psybeam**."

A wave of multi-colored light shot from further down the hallway, crashing into the two men who dropped their guns and fell onto the ground in pain. Codo opened his eyes again to see his savior. She looked to be about his age, with blonde hair. The small, purple Ghost type, Misdreavous, floated delicately beside her, mouth agape.

"You don't look familiar," the girl spoke. "Who do _you_ work for?"

Codo rose an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" He pointed his Pokéball towards the buizel, who disappeared in a flash of red light.

"Don't play dumb," she said, condescendingly. "Who assigned you here?"

This girl was weird, Codo thought. He didn't appreciate her smarmy attitude either, and why was she interrogating him all of a sudden? "No one," he finally answered. "One of my patients at the hospital said he worked here, and he had some weird illness, so I thought I'd check the place out."

He could see the girl smile, almost as if she didn't believe what he had said. "Yeah, okay." Sarcasm coated her words. "You can play dumb all you want; but I hope you know, you're sloppy. I mean, if you're going to do your job, do it without getting caught."

What the hell was she talking about? She was definitely strange, Codo caught that immediately, and her accent, she definitely wasn't from around here.

"Look, you're here to find out what happened, right?" She crossed her arms.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"Good." Her eyes flickered for a moment. "Then I guess you should come with me."

With that, she turned around and headed further down the hallway. Codo, ignoring the slight swivel of her hips stood still before speaking again. "You know…" He smirked. "Before I go gallivanting off with a smooth woman in black, I think I deserve a name."

The girl stopped and looked back with a grin. "Wouldn't _you_ like to know?" She continued on her way, her Pokémon trailing behind.

Codo sighed, she was strange; there was definitely something weird about her, and just why had she been here too?

"Maran,"

Codo looked back up to see that she had stopped again.

"What," he asked.

"My name, it's Maran."

"Oh," he said. "I'm Codo."

Codo had no way of knowing that, by going with the girl, he'd be starting an adventure that would rock the foundation of everything he knew.


	2. On the Run

**Chapter 2: On the Run**

"What's the deal with this place? Why is it deserted?" Codo couldn't help but at least ask the girl, Maran, as they walked the lonely hallway.

"Isn't it obvious?"

What? No, it _wasn't _obvious. And he wanted to tell her that, instead however, he just let out a, "Oh."

"My turn, who do you _really work for?"_

"I told you," he started. "I work for the clinic in town, and one of my patients came from here, so I came to check it out. Why are you here?"

"You're pretty nosy," was all she said before walked through a sliding door.

Really?_ He _was the nosy one? If she wanted to answer his questions pointedly, he'd do the same. Two could play at her game. "This, of course, is coming from the girl who literally asked me about my entire back story." He followed her in. He turned just in time to see her pull a disk out of a computer and stuff it into a black folder.

"Well, my job here's done." With a click of a button, the folder shrunk down to the size of her palm, and she stuffed the miniaturized object into her back pocket. "You can have free reign of the place now. I'll be going."

He wasn't even going to answer her, but he was sure he'd be able to get, at the very least, a bit of information out of her. He smirked and then, with sarcasm clearly coating his words said, "Well, a gentleman like me can't _possibly_ let a young lady like you walk all the way home all by her lonesome. May I have the honor of escorting you?"

Maran let a smug grin creep onto her face. "Well, if you want to walk me all the way to Castelia, you may indeed have that honor. If not, you can take solace in the fact that I'll be making the trip alone, perfectly safe."

Castelia? Could she mean Castelia City? In Unova?

Codo was already starting to form some hypotheses as to who she was. Maybe she was a secret agent girl, or maybe she was actually some sort of crime fighter that sought to rid the world of evil corporations. On that thought, he was pretty sure that Gai-earth, the name of the company that operated every Terra Vitae factory on the planet, was an upstanding corporation. In fact, he was sure that, just the other day, he read a news article where their own sponsored Pokémon Trainers had worked together to save a village from collapse in Fiore.

Maran must have had some sort of problem with the company, he decided. And if she thought he was someone connected to them, he'd just have to stay with her for a while longer, at least until he really found out what was going on.

"So be it," he said. "I'll take you home, even if it means going to the ends of the planet."

He could tell that she had called him on his bluff, but she shook his hand anyway. "It'll be fun, _friend."_ She said the last word with a bit of an edge.

Oh, she was going to be fun to work with.

* * *

Codo had forgotten about how chilly the mountain air was, and he instinctually put his hands into his pocket as he shivered. He was surprised that Maran didn't seem to be phased by the cold at all. The only thing she wore was a pair snow boots, black socks that went to her knees, and the standard blouse and skirt that all workers for Gai-Earth had to wear as uniform.

Wait, why hadn't he noticed that before? He made sure to make a mental note to pester her _all_ about that later.

"Aren't you cold," he asked through chattered teeth.

She took a deep breath in through her nose, almost mentally taunting his weakness. "Nope." Her head turned towards the town square, which, aside from the lone starly that flew overhead, was completely empty. "We can go to your place, if you really need to get warmer clothes.

"Yes," he said a little too quickly. With that, he rubbed his hands together and began walking. Or he would have, if Maran hadn't stopped him.

"On second thought…" She grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. "We should leave. Now." She was talking to him, but she was looking at something far away.

Codo turned around just in time to see, out of the corner of his eye, a figure move into an alleyway.

He didn't get to say anything, because the next thing he knew, Maran was practically pulling him out of the town, right past the Northern gates.

"What happened? Why are we leaving?"

"Shut up."

She didn't stay on the cleared trainer path for long, as soon as they passed by a boulder that blocked off their view of Paternica, she headed straight for the woods.

Freezing snow was starting to seep into his shoes, and already, he could feel the beginning of what he thought was frostbite setting in. Finally, after 5 minutes of running through the snow covered brush of the forest, she took a look back, and then eased her grasp on his shirt.

"Good, we're out of there," she said between gasps for air. Codo took note that even _she_ got tired after sprinting for 5 minutes straight in below 20 Fahrenheit weather. At least she wasn't some super powerful android, he thought. That took _one_ potential answer to Maran's identity off of the list.

"What the hell happened back there?" He sat down. The snow was freezing, and it almost instantly melted and got the seat of his pants wet the second he made contact with it, but anything was better than standing up after sprinting for 5 minutes straight.

"You didn't see him? Wow, how have you not gotten killed yet?" She looked almost dumbfounded at Codo, like she was surprised he didn't notice minute details.

He wasn't particularly sure how to answer that last part, but thought about her first question. See who exactly? Did she mean that guy that walked away just as he turned around? "The guy?"

"Yes, the guy," she scowled. "You're really bad at your job."

That was right; she thought he was something bigger than he really was. He had to make sure he kept up the charade if he wanted actual information out of her. "Well, _maybe_ I was just testing you."

"And _maybe_ you're just an awful liar," she shot back without missing a beat. "Look, we have to go; he might still be following us."

Codo wanted to inquire who exactly was following them of all people, but just added it to the list of things he would want to get out of the girl before they parted ways. In the meantime, Codo was sure he could get at least one answer out of her. "Where are we going?"

"Snowpoint."

"Really? My nerd friend goes to school up at the U there."

"Mmm, kay."

He rolled his eyes. Geez, she could have at least _tried_ to humor him.

* * *

Codo wasn't sure how much time had passed, all he knew was that the sun was already setting, and the wind was picking up. Now they were on a mountain, and snow was practically being shoveled on top of their heads as they shuffled through. Maran, though she tried to keep a stoic expression, was suffering greatly from the freezing weather too; she just didn't want to bring notice to it.

He could kiss his internship at the clinic and whatever scholarship money he had managed to scrape up down the drain. They would _never_ accept him back there after deserting it like he did. At least, when his parents inevitably found out about his sudden departure, he could make the argument that he did it to save the world, or something like that. Also, he'd say that Maran was really just a psychotic murderer –that was his newest theory, by the way- and that he went on a long trek to put her to justice.

No, no one was quite that stupid. He'd need more concrete evidence to justify why he left his solid internship to follow some random girl around. Oh God, he absentmindedly put his hand to his chin as he continued walking up. He hoped his mother or father didn't think he had knocked Maran up or anything stupid like that.

And then he felt himself being pushed to the ground, his face landing in the snow.

"What was that for," he griped as he pushed himself back onto his feet.

Maran didn't answer, only pulled out her Pokéball and released her Misdreavus. Without a word, she motioned behind him. Codo looked back, then jumped towards Maran in shock. A medicham, with its leg stuck in the ground, was right where Codo had stood just a second before. The Pokémon's leg was sizzling as steam rose from it, and all the snow had melted around the monster's impact site for 2 or three feet.

It had just tried to attack him, and if Maran hadn't pushed him away, he would most likely have been killed, or at least severely injured.

"What the… why did it just try to attack me?"

Maran ignored his question, and simply looked up, to a higher part of the mountain. "Aren't you a little old for hide and seek? Come on out, we know you're here."

A figure about their height jumped down from above. Codo couldn't help but notice that he looked… derpy. Almost too unassuming to be the person that had just tried to kill him. The boy's face was rather pointed, his nose was a bit _too_ rounded, and he had a whole row of teeth peeking out, even though his mouth was closed. _This_ was the guy who had almost killed him?

Either way, he had already released Buizel out of her Pokéball. It didn't matter what he looked like, he wanted a fight.

"Maran Delacroux, I've been sent to-"

"Misdreavus, **Psybeam!**" Two multi-colored beams were at both the trainer and his Pokemon. While he was sent flying into the wall, the Medicham easily blocked it with a blue shield, Protect.

"What. The. Heck." The boy dug himself out of the snow, shaking his black robe to get rid of some of the snow. "You're supposed to wait until I'm done-"

"**Psybeam."** He was sent flying back again, though this time he scurried back onto his feet.

"Stop doing that!" He pointed discriminately to the girl. "You're supposed to wait your turn!"

"Sorry," Maran said, eyes half open, as she shrugged nonchalantly. "I was under the assumption that we were fighting for our lives here."

"W-well you are! You should be terrified!"

Maran let out a sigh, Codo could tell that she was losing patience with the boy. "Misdreavus…"

"Medicham,"the boy interrupted, **"Foresight!" **Pokémon put both hands over the three yellow dots on its head. A pulsing black light spread out, eventually scanning over both Misdreavous and the Buizel before disappearing.

There, Maran knew right there what the other guy was planning to do. He wanted to make sure that no evasion shenanigans would go on during their scuffle. She let out a laugh, it wasn't like the fight was going to last longer than 2 minutes anyway. But, if he wanted a fight, then… "**Thunder Wave." **The Ghost type closed its eyes as a yellow light enveloped the creature's beads. The light concentrated on the last bead of the Pokémon's necklace then suddenly shot out in one solid beam.

"**Protect."**

The beam instantly nullified the moment it made contact with the protective barrier, but Medicham was left wide open. Codo suddenly saw this as the time to strike.

"Buizel!" She looked broadly at him. At least he had her attention. "Use **Aqua Jet**, while you still have a chance."

Buizel didn't seem to want to argue and jumped into the air as a stream of water shot out of her hind feet. Suddenly, her entire body was coated by a bubble of the liquid, and she jetted off straight towards her opponent like a missile.

"Stop it with **Ice Punch!"**

Medicham's hand became covered a light-blue hue. With a swift uppercut, the water move instantly froze over and shattered, sending Buizel straight up into the air.

"**Thunder Punch!"**

The fighting type's hand suddenly began pulsating with yellow sparks. In another quick motion, it leaped into the air towards Buizel, its fist shooting towards the otter.

"**Ice Punch!"**

Both Buizel and Medicham's fists collided into each other, and the resulting explosion sent both of them flying in separate directions. Both had landed on their feet successfully, but Codo could tell by Buizel's limp and scorched hand that she had been injured. There wouldn't be any more hand to hand combat for her for the rest of the fight. He scowled, that was probably her best attribute too; she never liked to fight using non-physical attacks after _that time_.

"**Hi-Jump Kick!"**

The next think he knew, Buizel was sent flying backwards again, though this time she collided with a tree and didn't get back up.

"You shouldn't have gotten distracted," Maran pointedly said. As Codo returned Buizel to her ball, she scanned the area. Now definitely wasn't the time to have a long fight. He wasn't alone, she knew that much. No one sent to go after _her_ would go all by themselves. There was somebody else here, watching and taking notes. "Codo," she muttered.

He turned back towards the blonde as he stuffed his ball back into his pocket. "What happened?"

"Get ready to run, follow me and don't stop, no matter what, alright?"

"What?"

"Just do it, ask questions later." She stepped next to her Pokémon and whispered something. The Ghost nodded, seemingly agreeing with and understanding the request. It took a deep breath and suddenly high pitched sound waves escaped past the creature's lips.

Codo knew what this move was, Screech. Usually, it was used to lower an opponent's defense during battle, but what did that have to do with running?

Then he noticed it, the ground started trembling, and the few trees that were around were having their snow shaken off by the vibration. They were on a snow covered mountain and…

He looked up and saw a wave of snow cascading down the mountain from higher up. It was an avalanche; her plan to run away had to do with creating one as a distraction. Codo noticed though, this avalanche wasn't nearly as big as_ that one._ Maybe if-.

"Codo, hurry up!"

He hadn't noticed that Maran had already started running and was already a ways away. He shook his head as if it also shook away all of those past memories and ran after her.

* * *

Hours later, the two decided to take shelter in a cave. Outside, a blizzard was raging, which was good, Maran said. Not only would it hide their tracks from any more of those people, but it also limited their follower's visibility. They'd be assured a good night's sleep, at least

Codo decided to take Buizel out of her Pokéball and treat her broken hand. He didn't have too much experience treating actual Pokémon, but he felt that he could at least help assuage some of the pain away. He took off his doctor's coat and ripped away part of the sleeve. His Buizel's paw was bleeding a bit, so he wrapped it around the wound with a snug knot. The water type took a long look at it and instantly chewed the material off before walking off to a corner of the cave, away from the two humans.

Maran was wrapped up in a blanket, already deep in the embrace of gentle (and most likely warm) sleep. Codo was freezing, though. He could barely feel his feet, and the tips of his ears stung from the freezing cold. It was going to be a long night.

"Hey," Maran groggily said between the covers. "You're cold, right? Get in here."

He almost couldn't register what she had said for a second.

"We're sharing." She lifted the blanket in front of her, telling him that he better go there before she changed her mind. "Oh, and don't try any funny business," she told him the second she heard the pitter patter of his feet. "I'm going to be the big spoon here."

With a shrug, he buried himself into the warm sheets in front of the blonde.

It was almost nice, he thought. And it would actually have been a little romantic, if he didn't feel the knife on his back the entire night.

Oh well.

* * *

**Author's Note:** _And, with that, chapter 2 is out. Don't expect another chapter release until Mid-December. I'm already 40,000 words into NaNoWriMo, and I want that to be my prime concern right now._

_If the story is boring you, fear now! I'll be having someone else join up with them next chapter! And, we'll be through the prologue as well. Get ready, folks, this story's going to get rocky._


	3. The Snow Covered City

**Chapter 3: The Snow Covered City**

"Ah, we're finally here!" Codo's arms both shot to the air in victory the moment he saw the steel gates of Snowpoint City. It had been a long trip, but he was happy he had finally reached civilization. Before he did anything else, there was one important thing he had to take care of.

He whipped out his cell phone and held it up to the light. "Ha, I _finally_ have reception again!"

"I assume you're going to call your mommy now," Maran mocked.

"Nope, even better." He went to his phone's contacts page then scrolled down to the D section. "Dacey, Danielle, Destiny…" he muttered to himself as he scrolled through.

Maran noticed; he had a _lot_ of girl's numbers on his phone. Huh, she never pegged him as a player.

"Here it is, Drew!" His fingers furiously pressed the holographic letters that jumped off of the screen.

Was Drew a girl too, Maran wondered. It was one of those unisex names. Was this the nerd friend that he mentioned yesterday? Huh, maybe she'd stick with him for a while just to sniff the other girl out.

The phone vibrated back and Codo flicked his finger across the screen to read the message. He looked at the girl quickly. "Hey, you want to hang out with me and my friend for a while?"

Look at that; she didn't even need to ask to tag along.

"Sure." She was interested in finding out who this mysterious lady friend was, but her voice made it seem like she was only vaguely interested at the prospect of hanging out.

* * *

Room 203. Room 204. Room 205.

This was it; this was the dorm number that Codo's friend stayed at. He knocked on it a few times before it opened. A guy that looked around Codo's age opened the door. He had a Chimchar draped around his neck, he was pretty muscular too, a bit more than Codo himself. The guy readjusted his glasses and let out a laugh.

"Dude, it's been, what, 4 months?"

"Yeah, bro, it's been forever."

Their hands met in a flurry of slaps and fist bumps that seemed too complex to actually be a secret handshake. When they had _finally_ finished, Maran decided to speak. "Where's this girl you were texting? Is this her brother or… her _boyfriend?_"

Both boys started blankly at her for a moment before breaking out into a chuckle.

"Nice to meet you," the guy let a hand out. "I'm Drew, _a guy._"

"It's a pleasure." She shook his hand and kept up her apathetic expression. She didn't want any Codo or his friend to think she was _embarrassed_ by her mistake. She was though.

All three of them walked inside the room. Textbooks, notebooks, loose-leaf paper, graphs, empty coffee packages and clothes were strewn all around the room in messy heaps.

"I've been busy with school," Drew said regarding the mess in his room. "I'll get it cleaned up, after I finish this thing." He motioned over to the laptop sitting on the desk in the corner. He was writing a paper, it seemed. A 78 page paper. "I swear, the professors here are trying to kill me with all this work."

"Yeah, college'll do that to you." Maran offhandedly said. To be honest, now that she knew that this Drew character was just one of Codo's friends, he seemed a whole lot less interesting.

Sensing Maran's hostility, Codo turned the subject back around. "Drew here wants to be a Pokémon Professor some day."

The other guy slumped down into his chair and leaned back before taking in a deep breath. "But more than that, I need to find out about the Forbidden History.

"You mean the ancient record that says what happened during the 500 year Blank Point of history?" Maran's head perked up. "I thought that was just a theory. Back in school, I learned that it really didn't exist, and people just screwed up the dates back then, or something."

"No way," Drew said as he put his hands on his knees. "Researchers have discovered relics created by Pokémon themselves during that time period. Curiously, in that same time, between the years of 3952 and 4452, nothing of human record was created. What's weirder is the fact that, right after 4452, on January 1, people came back. According to records from that time, they all just 'woke up' one day with no memory at all of their past lives. This was about 400 years ago, and generations upon generations of researchers have tried, and failed, to find out exactly what happened."

Maran let out a sigh. "That's just a fairy tale that parents tell their kids. Geez, way to dig way too deep into a story."

"In any case, I need to check out the Snowpoint Temple for my paper. You guys gonna come?" He turned to look at Codo and, "Why are you wearing my clothes?"

Sure enough, the doctor intern already had on the other boy's sweatpants and shirt and lay lazily on the twin sized bed. He had apparently changed clothes while Drew and Maran were talking, and neither of them noticed. "Oh, yeah, my clothes suck out here, so I just took yours." It wasn't like it was a problem, the two shared everything, and they were about the same size too. "Sure," he looked at the Maran. "You coming?"

"Uh… I'll meet up with you guys there. I have… business to take care of, kay?" With that, she stood up and went through the door, leaving the two to their own devices. She had to get that thing delivered as soon as possible.

Walking briskly, she trudged through the snow covered streets. People walked past her constantly, though they didn't seem to take any special notice of her. This was a good sign, though she made sure to keep her eyes peeled in case anyone else like the boy who attacked them yesterday came and attacked.

She was supposed to meet up with the appointed person at a diner at 431 Springwalk Street in Snowpoint. Her eyes quickly scanned over the numbers painted on each of the buildings and she eventually found the place on the block just across the street. With nimble steps, she walked across the road, stopping every now and then to let a car pass by. She liked cities; somehow, they helped set her at ease, and they made her feel like she wasn't some sort of anomaly to be stared at. Everyone here was in a rush to get somewhere; they were too busy to look at the poor rich girl that walked among them. She was surrounded by people, but she was alone, and she liked that. She could _really_ be herself when she was alone.

She shuffled her shoes on the textured carpet just outside of the door to the diner and took a deep breath as the warm air brushed past her exposed cheeks. Usually, the people she had to deliver things to were alone, so her eyes darted around, glazing over the groups of more than two but taking in extreme detail at people who were sitting by themselves. There, in the corner of the restaurant was a man wearing a dark hat and coat. It was a safe bet he was the person, but she had to make sure.

"The sun sure is bright out, isn't it?" It was an innocent code message to make sure that he was the intended recipient of the disc she had stolen. If it was him, he would respond with something cryptic. Past winners for answers were 'Oh, my parakeet has flown to Unova for sabbatical' and 'My niece lost her dentures the other day. My carpet had eaten them.' There was no telling what the weird answer would be _this_ time.

"What are you talking about," the man answered. "It's been cloudy all week now."

Nope this wasn't him. She had learned that, if she made the mistake of addressing the wrong person, she'd have to cover it up in any way possible. That included acting like an idiot. "Oh, stupid me!" Her voice went up several pitches as she bonked her head and stuck out her tongue. "This cold air must be driving me, like, completely bonkers!"

She practically galloped away. Her face told everyone that she was a delusional and idiotic college girl. Inside though, she felt like she had practically died.

She eyed a lone woman sitting at another table reading a book as a plate of hot soup lay in front of her, untouched. _This_ had to be her.

"Hello; the sun sure is bright out, isn't it?"

"My book has been awfully pessimistic lately. Is it the coffee?"

Pity, this cryptic answer wasn't very funny at all.

Reaching into her back pocket, she slid the folder containing the disk to the woman, who gingerly grabbed it and put it into a purse. She then smiled. "We really appreciate the work you've done for us, sweetie. Boss says you can take off whenever you want."

She waved her hand through the air, dismissing the comment. "Tell that old geezer that I'm just fine. Besides, what am I going to do at home? No one's been there in ages."

The older woman stood up and stroked Maran's hair softly. "It's just… he's worried for you. You're just a kid…"

Maran was able to recognize genuine caring when she saw it. She wanted to smile, to tell the woman that she was touched by her sentiment, but she didn't like showing actual joy. It made her look weak, and that was the last thing she needed, especially in this job. "Relax." It seemed like the conversation was over, and the woman was just about to head through the door when Maran spoke again. "Tell the old man that I'm on another job. I'll give him more details when I get to Jubilife, alright?"

"Okay, dear. I'm sure you're parents are so…"She stopped mid-sentence. "Be safe."

"Wait!" There was one thing Maran needed to ask. The plate of untouched steamy, tomato soup in front of her looked appealing. She hadn't eaten since yesterday morning, and frankly, she was starving. "I'm eating that." She didn't like saying please.

The woman let out a small chuckle. "Of course." And then she left.

"_Now_," the woman thought to herself as she stepped onto the crisp snow, _"I'll be receiving a ride home, via an old Buick, at the abandoned parking lot on the western part of town." _He boots shuffled through the streets until she reached the appointed place. The car was nestled in the far corner, just as it was supposed to be.

Suddenly, a web-like net pulsating with yellow energy flew in and tangled itself around her. In the resulting moments, her hands were completely locked up; she couldn't even reach for her Pokéball.

"Electroweb," she heard a girl's voice coming to the side. Though it was a struggle to move her head, she managed to squirm enough to look at her attacker. She was a girl of about 18, her blonde hair was cut short and was streaked with green. Her heels were odd as well. They were covered in chrome spikes. Even the back heel part was a huge spike that made her 7 or 8 inches taller. The woman knew who this girl was; she was the infamous bounty hunter, Amber Hendrix, the one who all agents for the corporation were told to run from the instant they saw her.

"You…"

"Don't talk," Amber reached into the woman's purse and pulled out the disk that Maran had given her. With one prompt motion, she snapped it in two. "You shouldn't be carrying such dangerous things with you."

The woman couldn't answer; already, the electric properties of the web were affecting her. Her vision was already blurred, and she could hear her heart slowing down.

"Amber," a boy came charging in. The woman recognized him as Amber's accomplice. "Is… is she…"

"Come on, Jeffrey, you know that's not how I operate. Now go, leave her in front of the hospital. Make sure nobody sees you."

That was the last thing the woman heard before she completely blanked out.

* * *

"So, what's up with that chick," Drew asked. His voice echoed off the stone walls of the city's temple. "You… didn't knock her up or anything, right?"

Damn, Codo just _knew_ that someone was going to ask him that. "No, it's nothing like that; it's something else." He looked around for a moment, just to make sure that they were really alone. "Something happened at the Gai-Earth processing plant at the town I'm staying at. A patient of mine came from there, but he had some symptoms I've never even heard of."

Drew stopped looking at the hieroglyphics sculpted into the walls and stared at his friend, this was more important than examining some wall.

"I went to the factory, but the entire place was abandoned."

"So? Maybe everyone went home early, or something." An unlikely scenario, Drew admitted to himself.

"No, the place was a mess. The computers were still on, and I overheard two guys talking about how they had to 'cleanup.' And they mentioned someone screwing with their plans. I think Maran was the person they were talking about."

That was impossible; Drew put a hand to his chin. If the entire facility had disappeared, why hadn't he heard about anything like that on the news? He voiced this thought to Codo, who shrugged.

"I don't know, I just think that, maybe, something big's going on here. I know Maran knows, so I'm not leaving her until I find out _what_."

"I think…" Codo leaned in close, sure he was about to get some sort of rational expression from his friend. "I think you're just crazy. Listen," Drew let out with a laugh. "You don't have to lie to me about why you're with this girl."

He sighed, "I'm not lying; something weird is happening."

"_Riiiight_, well, I'm done here. Let's go back, I need to compile this data and crunch a few numbers before I can send this bad boy of an essay to my professor."

They both headed out of the ruins, into the courtyard. Out, about a hundred yards or so ahead of them stood a single girl with short, green streaked blonde hair.

"Hey," Drew called out. "You doing the research paper for class too?" He didn't recognize her, but the school was huge, he figured there'd be at least _one_ person he didn't recognize.

"Codo Amador," she calmly said as they got closer. "I've been looking for you." She opened the ball in her hand, revealing a skittish Ariados in a flash of bright white light.

"Me?"

"_Another_ past girlfriend?" Drew elbowed the guy on the rib suggestively.

He looked at the girl, turned back to Drew and, before he spoke again, took _another_ look. He was positive he'd never seen her in his life. Then his eyes shot open. "It's a _fan._"His hand reached for his Pokéball and he released Buizel in an instant. Her paw was still injured, and that would be a major problem if the fight turned close range or lasted too long.

"She seems pissed, I hope you didn't crush her sister's heart or something." Drew stepped back. Obviously, he was joking, though it was clear that the girl had some sort of problem with his pal. "Hey, what's your name?"

"Sorry, I only talk to my intended targets. You aren't worth my time."

"Okay then," Codo said as he pointed to himself. "But _I'm_ you're target, right?"

"Yes."

"So what's your name?"

"Amber Hendrix."

Drew's eyes narrowed, as they often did whenever he got annoyed with someone. "Why didn't you just answer the question when _I_ asked it?"

Ignoring the slightly taller boy, her eyes trained themselves on Codo. "I've been ordered to take you into custody as soon as possible."

Now was the time to act more like Maran, Codo thought. He would have to remain calm, even if, inside, he was buzzing with questions. "You have a real winner of a personality, you know that? I mean, shouldn't you ask for dinner or something before you try sweeping me off my feet?"

"I'm saying it nicely, surrender now and you and your friend won't be hurt."

"Sorry, I typically like girls who are just a tad less aggressive, no offense."

"Fair then, Ariados, you know what to do." The bug Pokémon nodded and then turned around, pointing the yellow spoke on its abdomen towards the two. With one pushing motion, a web of electricity shot out, Codo was about to run, until a small spurt of fire burned the web away.

"Listen, lady," Drew spoke as he stepped forward. His Chimchar was already at his feet, listening for the moment he received an order. "Codo's a little preoccupied with some stuff right now. Try kidnapping him some other time."

"If you interfere once more, you'll be considered a target as well," Amber spoke as if she were reading from some sort of cue card in the background.

"Oh well." He shrugged. "Chimchar, **Ember** again."

The fire monkey's cheeks puffed up, and more small flames shot out from its mouth. With little effort at all, the Ariados dodged the move by jumping high into the air.

"**String Shot**." A long string of silk shout of from the spider's mouth and wrapped itself around the fire type. Ariados whipped its head to the side, and Chimchar was slammed down onto the ground, forcefully. It went to slam Chimchar again, but this time a wave of light energy from Buizel's tail cut through the rope, freeing the Pokémon from the sticky substance.

"Thanks, I needed help back there," Drew said in a huff. "I guess this lady means business."

"Don't worry about it." Turning back to the battle at hand, Codo shouted another set of orders to his Buizel. "You need to stay back, your hand still isn't healed. Keep your distance with **Ice Beam**!"

The Pokémon scowled and instead went for an Aqua Jet attack to speed across the frozen ground towards her mark, her target.

"Ariados, **Shadow Sneak**."

With a burst of speed so quick that none of them could see clearly, Ariados melted into the ground, striking Buizel from below immediately after.

Without missing a beat, Amber issued another set of commands. "**Hone Claws**, now that the target is disoriented; then **Cross Poison**!"

Ariados stayed right on beat with her trainer, in the second it took for Buizel to reach the ground, it managed to sharpen its horns and mandibles and leap onto Buizel's back to start the next attack.

Drew gritted his teeth as he watched the sight unfold in front of him. There was no way Ember would reach all the way up here, Chimchar was still weak. And the only move he knew right now would only do minimal damage. Still, he had to do something. "Chimchar quick, knock it off with **Gunk Shot**!"

A ball of purple sludge was shot towards the Ariados. However, it seemed the Pokémon wasn't affected at all by the hit. Dammit, Drew was afraid of that, the trainer and her Pokémon were on a whole different level than they were, there was no way a Pokémon that was thoroughly resistant to a Poison type move would be even marginally damaged.

Buizel screamed in horror as the Ariado's fangs buried themselves into her flesh. After a few seconds of writhing, Buizel was down for the count.

"Ariados, finish that last one with a **Bug Bite**; show him who he's messing with."

Before Drew could even let out a command to counter hers, Ariados had already delivered a painful bite to Chimchar, who fell onto the snow covered ground painfully. Chimchar, a fire type, was done in by a bug type move. That showed how below her level he was.

"You should have surrendered when I gave you the chance." Amber directed herself to Codo. "And you shouldn't have gotten in the way," she said to Drew.

"Fine, we give up." Codo raised his hands above his head in defeat. And then, out of nowhere, a blue barrier appeared around Amber and her Ariados, preventing them from going any farther.

"Hey, Tweedle A and B," Maran's voice called out to them. "Misdreavus' **Protect Bubble** won't last forever. Get your butts in gear and get out of there."

Without another word, the two picked up their Pokémon and ran away. It wasn't until they reached the front entrance of Snowpoint University that they stopped.

"What the hell was that," Drew yelled. "Who the hell was that girl?"

"Oh, you mean _that_?" Maran said offhandedly. "_That's_ just Amber, I run into her here and there. She's nothing special, really." Looking behind her quickly, she smiled. "And speaking of the devil." She motioned towards the charging figure in the distance. "That girl doesn't know how to give up. Well, Codo, if you wanna stay and get your ass handed to you like last time, go ahead. I'll be on my way." With that, she charged off.

"If she's so confident, why isn't she fighting Amber right now," Codo asked himself. With a passing shrug, he looked at Drew. "I'll see you around then, take care!" He too, charged off in Maran's direction. If Drew wanted to say something, he didn't get the chance.

* * *

The two were running for a while now. About 10 minutes ago, they ran right past the city limits and into the downhill road going west. Finally, Maran stopped to wipe the sweat from her brow and look back.

"That girl's pretty precocious. I don't think we'll be out of her range for a while now. We need to keep going."

"Right." Codo didn't pay attention to anything she had said, all he knew was that, since he met her, he had done _a lot _of running.

They were going to start again, until they heard the rev of an engine behind them. Amber?

"Hey!"

Wait a second. That was… Drew. He was driving a large snowmobile and had a large, stuffed backpack sitting in the open compartment in the back that served as a trunk.

"Hey, idiot," Codo yelled back. "Why are you here?"

"Later," Drew answered. "She's right behind you guys. Get in."

"How sweet, your boyfriend came to save you from the big, evil girl," Maran joked as she climbed in.

Codo couldn't help but let out a laugh. Why did he have a feeling that Maran would totally be into that too?

They took off, the sounds of the fresh engine filling their ears as they drove downward. Drew wasn't good at driving this, Maran and Codo both realized. Instead of making turns smoothly, he would sharply force the vehicle floundering left and right to avoid trees and rocks. They had now traveled far enough down Mt. Coronet that the snow and pine trees had become replaced with dirt and leafy greens. Still, they weren't slowing down at all.

"Hey, slow down, I want to get to a safe place, but I want to get there _alive_."

And that was the problem. Drew didn't know how to slow down. Curiously, he pushed a button on the dashboard to see what it did. And then the snowmobile crashed into a tree.

**End of Prologue**

* * *

**Author's** **Notes:** _And another chapter is done. Once again, if you have any comments about what you like so far or how I can imporve, you can feel free to review. The first story arc will officially start next chapter. When Codo, Maran, and Drew get to a small town, they're left with many questions. Why is everyone leaving? Why is there a enormous Steelix attacking? Who is that floating woman? Do those three odd scientists have anything to do with this?_

**Character Biography: Maran**

**Name: **Maran Delacroux

**Hometown: **Castelia(?)

**Favorite Color:** ?

**Blood Type: **?

**Likes: **?

**Dislikes: **People knowing her likes and dislikes.


	4. Curious Happenings in Miner Valley

**Chapter 4: Curious Happenings in Miner Valley**

"Aha, I got it," Codo yelled in triumph as the tiny ember from the pile of twigs and dried crass grew into a sizable fire. It was tough work; since Drew's Chimchar was still knocked out from the fight outside Snowpoint Temple, he had to make the fire by hand.

"About time," Maran yawned. "It only took you…" she glanced at her watch, "four whole hours."

"You shouldn't talk, you've done nothing all day."

She rolled her eyes. "I think _you_ owe_ me_. I saved your butt earlier," she said as she popped a piece of chopped up Oran Berry into her mouth.

Codo grumbled as he set a spit that was skewering three small birds over the flame.

"You don't seriously expect me to eat that."

"It's wild Starly, they're good." Feverishly, he set to work combining Oran and Pecha Berries in a separate bowl. After getting them into a pulpy mixture, he separated the contents into two smaller sippy cups and handed them to his Buizel and Drew's Chimchar. The fire Pokémon drank the mixture slowly, but Buizel set it down behind her and continued staring into the darkness surrounding them.

"What's the deal with her, anyway? That thing's always in a crappy mood." Maran ignored the daggers the water type glared at her after she had spoken.

"Oh, nothing much, just a long, long tale of stuff," Codo said.

"You should tell me, I wanna know _all_ about you're little winner's personality development." Just then, a powerful squirt of water sent her rolling back, and Buizel snickered as she basked in her own personal victory.

"That's what you get for prying." Codo didn't look up as he crumbled a few leaves into another dish.

Oh, Maran made a mental note to make sure Misdreavus beat the living daylights out of the furball later on. This wasn't something she'd forget anytime soon.

Their silence was broken when Drew came in; one large backpack strapped to his back, and another two unfilled ones in his arms. "Here." He threw the two empty ones to Codo and Maran. "It's waterproof too, so all of your stuff'll be safe."

"You really packed _everything_, didn't you," Codo jokingly asked. He didn't have much in the way of supplies right now, but there was a small town nearby, he could buy everything he'd need for a long trip there in the morning. "You sure you can just do this? Leaving your college, I mean. Don't you have work, or something?"

"Yeah, I told my professor that I wanted to do field research, –they love that kind of stuff- all I really need to do is submit a 50 page paper every week about my findings, no big deal."

_No big deal?_

"What about you?" Drew directed the question back at Codo. "Didn't you have a pretty sweet deal down at Paternica? I still can't believe you gave that up to travel with some chick, why'd you do that?"

"Yeah, why _did_ you give all that up," she mocked. Codo knew she knew the answer. And he was pretty sure she knew that he knew about her knowing.

"It's complicated," was all he replied as he removed each of the small birds from the spit and handed them to the other two. "Here, eat up."

Maran took a small bite into the bird, as if testing it. Immediately, he eyes widened in shock, and she went in for a second, larger bite. She wasn't going to admit it, but this was pretty good, even with the primitive cooking method used to make it. "Look at that, a future doctor _and_ a good cook? I bet you have a line of potential wives hanging outside your door."

He really didn't appreciate her tone. Jerk. "Oh, a girl that recognizes my greatness _and_ my cooking ability? I think I just found her," he jokingly winked to the girl.

"Hate to break up your romantic fluff," Drew said. "But we're going down to Miner Valley tomorrow, right? If we're actually going to travel on foot to Jubilife, we'll need to buy supplies."

"Yeah, we were planning on it."

"Alright then," he rose his half eaten Starly into the air. "Here's to the road ahead. Cheers."

"Cheers.

"Aye aye."

* * *

"Miner Valley," Maran read the name on the tall, rickety wooden sign over the town. They had walked to the rocky, dusty part of Mt. Coronet. "Geez, I wonder what the main occupation of the people here is," she deadpanned.

"Mining, of course. The area was colonized in 4723 after a plentiful supply of ore and other minerals were discovered in its local fissures. Gai-Earth also has its own mining facility here. This is one of the places where they mine Terra Vitae plants; those are the plants that power everything these days." He smiled sheepishly. "I had to write a paper on it for a class before."

"I was being sarcastic. Way to lecture us. Besides, focus less on the facts, and more on _that_." She pointed to the line of people who were headed their way, right out of the town.

The three walked toward the people. Strangely, they all carried large suitcases and bags on their backs, as if they were in the middle of a mass exodus.

"Excuse me," Codo walked to an elderly woman. "What's going on, why's everyone leaving?"

She took a swift look behind him then quickly stepped away.

"What was up with that?" Codo said to himself, it didn't look like she was afraid of him, right?

"It's no use," Maran said as she tapped Codo on the shoulder. "None of the people here are talking to me either."

"Same here, what the hell's going on here?"

Suddenly, rain started pouring down. And everyone's clothes instantly became drenched. Codo was absolutely sure that the sky was completely clear just a moment ago.

"You there." A grizzled man, a woman and a grumpy kid carrying an Aron in his arms walked up to them. The man looked in the direction that the townspeople were walking from. Then, he took a deep breath as he turned back to the three. "You kid's ought to get outta' here. This town ain't safe."

"What happened?"

"There's a monster terrorizing the town, it's a steelix. We're not sure where it came from, but it started tearing up the town about a week ago. Gai-Earth's officers, including one of their Phoenixes, came and told us that they'd take care of the problem."

"The Phoenixes are Gai-Earth's group of elite trainers," the boy blurted out. "I uh… I read that in a book." He didn't seem at all bothered by the rain.

"If one of those guys are here, you guys have nothing to worry about. In fact, if they're as strong as the rumors say, why can't one take down _one_ wild Pokémon?" Maran put a hand to her chin as she thought. "Something doesn't sit right with me." Just like that, she walked further into the town square, all by herself.

"Mom, Dad; are you _sure_ I can't start traveling now?" The boy practically hopped in place.

"Sorry Joel, you can go once we get to the next town. It's too dangerous for you to be traveling alone right now, alright?" The woman kneeled down and gingerly ruffled the brown haired boy's head. She looked at Codo and Drew with a worried expression. "If you two are going to follow your friend, please be careful."

Just then, the ground shook violently. The people near the back of the line all looked back in horror and proceeded to make a run for the town's exit.

"That's our cue."

Both guys made a beeline for the town square. Another loud rumbling rocked the area, and Codo and Drew made it just in time to see the Iron Snake tunneling underground.

"About time you two made it," Maran shouted past the pouring rain. "Help me take this thing out!" She watched as Misdreavus narrowly dodged the Steelix's lunge from underground. "Hit it where it hurts, **Will-O-Wisp**." Orange rings of fire appeared spinning around Misdreavus, it looked like they were about to get sent flying at the rampaging beast, but suddenly the rain started pouring down ever harder than before, and the flames were extinguished.

"It's no good," Drew shook his head in anger. "Fire attacks can't work out here now; Chimchar won't be any help out in this rain either. Still," he thought aloud as he scratched his head inquisitively. "Steelix don't reside naturally anywhere on this part of Sinnoh…"

"**Aqua Jet,"** Buizel's water missile attack connected head on with the steel type. The Steelix was sent reeling backwards, obviously a little damaged from the attack, but Buizel looked worse off still. Her head was pounding, and it looked like she was bleeding a bit.

"**Shadow Ball**, and don't stop until I tell you to!" The girl's ghost Pokemon complied, sending orb after orb of dark matter towards the beast. It seemed like the Steelix wasn't very bothered by the hits though; if anything, it looked more annoyed.

The Iron Snake's body shook violently for a second, then, out of nowhere, its shape became more streamlined, and it practically glided above the ground as it headed for Maran's Misdreavus.

"Get out of there!"

She was too late; even before she could finish her sentence, Misdreavus had taken a direct Iron Tail strike straight to the ground. It kept on pounding the area where the ghost Pokémon lay. Another Aqua Jet attack came from the side, taking the Steelix's attention away from the downed ghost.

"_Steelix usually aren't this overtly aggressive either. There has to be something affecting it." _Drew noticed the wrecked buildings around. It was odd, only the houses and stores around were damaged. The big, more modern buildings were almost unscathed.

"Misdreavus, are you okay?" The Pokémon weakly floated back up and delivered a small nod to show that she could still fight. "Alright, then. Get ready to use **Swagger**!" It looked at her in disbelief for a moment. Even the ghost knew that move was a huge gamble, especially now that the Steelix's speed had risen considerably. Still, she trusted her trainer's intuition and let out a ghostly sigh that circled around the Steel type's head until it was absorbed through its iron shell.

The Steelix's irises seemed to dilate for a moment, and its rapid attacks against the Buizel with increased ferociousness. Though it would sometimes clang its dense tail on its head during its onslaught, the Steelix didn't seem to notice.

"What the hell?" Codo's mouth was agape. "You made it _stronger_?"

"Don't worry about that, just stay back." Maran glanced at her Pokémon. "Use **Trick Room**, now!"

Misdreavus' eyes turned a bright green. After a short howl, a neon yellow box of energy filled the entire courtyard. Buizel, who was in the air when the move began, was falling down towards the ground much slower. The Steelix was moving ever slower than that.

"Get in close, Misdreavus. Then **Inferno**!"

In a flash, the purple ghost appeared right on the drastically slowed down Steelix's nose. One short howl ensued, and the steel type found itself covered in a veil of burning, searing flames. The green shell that covered the courtyard shattered like glass, the Steelix fell to the ground, charred and breathing only sporadically.

"We're done." She slapped the mud and dirt that had found its way on her gloves and returned her Pokémon to its ball. "Thanks," she said. Strangely, her Misdreavus was the only one she could say that too without feeling like a sucker.

"H-how did you do that?" Drew looked at the blonde in surprise. You used a fire move in this pouring rain!"

"Oh," she simply said as she looked at the fallen beast. "Inferno wasn't nearly as strong as it could be. Remember when I kept having my Misdreavus use Shadow Ball on that thing? Well, Shadow Ball has a nice little quirk in that it sometimes decreases the target's Special Defense. After that, I just had it weaken itself a bit more with Swagger and slowed it down to take it out. No big deal." She _wanted_ to say that she was pretty awesome, but she was nevermuch of a bragger. "Huh?" She squinted her eyes to look at a figure; a tiny, petite girl that was kneeled next to the smoldering Steelix.

"Hey, be careful." Codo ran up to her. He managed to get a better look at her. Small and almost impossibly skinny, but he could tell that she was, at least, in her young teens. _Maybe_ 15. Even weirder, all she wore was a long white nightgown, and she was barefoot. It didn't seem like the rain bothered her one bit either. "That thing could come back up and attack again. You should stay away."

The girl cocked her head to the side, almost as if she was examining Codo's face. Before he got a chance to ask questions, she took his hand and traced circles around it. Looking at both Maran and Drew beside him, she did the same to them, staring at them and tracing small circles on their hands too. Stepping back after she did it to a disgusted Maran, she flashed a quick smile and ran off into the rain.

Drew stared at his palm. She didn't leave any marks, so why did she do that? "That girl was…"

"Never mind that." Maran broke his trance. "Drew, you did a paper on this town, where's Gai-Earth's mine?"

"Well, if the layout hasn't changed…" he examined the ruined buildings that stood on the dirt street. "It should be just one block over."

"Don't you think it's odd that an oversized Steelix attacked this place, so close to the building that's supposed to house one of the strongest trainers in the world?"

"Now that you mentioned it…" Codo looked back to the town exit. "Those people said that Gai-Earth had one of the Phoenixes here. If one of them was here, why didn't he or she come out to stop it?"

Maran didn't say anything; instead, she walked towards the building. Something stopped her though, and Codo and Drew both saw her duck and hide behind a parked car. With a small waving motion, she beckoned the other two to follow her, quietly.

"What happened?"

"Stay down," she hushed them and pointed for them to look over the hood of the car.

Standing in front of the doorway of the mine building were two well dressed men. Codo recognized their attires, the two men that had attacked him in Paternica had the same clothes, they even had similar shades.

There was another person though, an old lady that caught them off guard. She was moving towards the men, but she wasn't walking. It seemed like she was hovering mid-air.

"I- is that lady flying," Codo choked out, bug-eyed.

"I told you to shut up!"

"Dears, it's much too cold and windy out here," The old woman said gently to the dressed men. "Please, go inside."

"No, our orders are to guard the entrance ma'am. We'll have to decline your entrance."

"No no," she replied as she raised her frail fingers in front of the men. "I simply _insist_."

The two looked at each other and nodded. "You're right," the one on the left said. "It's pretty cold out here, I could really use a hot cup of coffee right now. You coming?" He looked at the man next to him.

"Oh, yeah, let's get out of here."

"Yes," the woman let out a laugh. "Strapping young men like you shouldn't be out here in the cold." Just before the old woman floated inside, Maran could've sworn the woman chuckled and made eye contact with her.

All three ducked their heads behind the car to sink in what had just occurred. A floating woman had just come and told two of the building's guards to abandon their posts. A _floating_ woman. _Floating._

"Who the heck was that?" Drew held his eyes shut. "My head's pounding right now."

"Yeah, mine too." Codo did the same. "And I swear, the old lady looked straight at us and laughed."

Now that they mentioned it, Maran's head was pounding too. This wasn't an ordinary headache, there was something burning about this pain. She shook it off as best as she could and headed towards the door.

"Hey, where are you going?" Codo ran after her.

"They left the front door wide… damn it, my head…" Maran felt a pulse through her brain. "I'm checking this joint out. I knew I was right when I told you something fishy's going on in this town."

"Wait," Drew stood forward. "We're going too, a lot of things aren't adding up, and I'm going to find out what."

"Fine, but know this." She shook her head again. "This could get dangerous fast, if something goes wrong, there's a good chance you'll die. You got that?"

Codo and Drew both stared at each other and gave themselves one of those all-telling nods that they had always done since they were kids.

"Got it," they both said.


	5. A Deserted Facility

**Author's Note**: _Yeah, I know, I broke my one chapter a week promise. But this entire arc's been bugging the crap out of me and I wasted two weeks of time trying to 'fix' it. Funny thing is, the final draft is pretty much exactly the same as the first draft, except that one fight is more of a joke. Eh, screw it, the entire team hasn't even met yet, I can save the detailed plot stuff for when we get out fourth member. Also, I changed the title of the story. Instead of "Ingrained," this conglomeration of ideas I have to stretch to consider "plot" is called, simply, "Tale." Love it? Hate it? Tell me, if you guys even care.__**  
**_

* * *

**Chapter 5: A Deserted Facility**

The doors to the mining facility automatically slid open, revealing the well lit entrance room. Curiously, the room was completely devoid of people, though Codo took note that unlike last time, it was neat and tidy. "Doesn't look like anyone was forced out."

They took another few steps and suddenly, the double doors near the back opened. In came a line of suited men marching in, already holding guns and Pokéball.

Maran rolled her eyes. She could disarm their guns in a second, in fact… "Misdreavus, **Thunder Wave Alpha**, now!"

Almost immediately as she released her Ghost, its purple necklace turned yellow, and lines upon lines of yellow thread snuck across the room. The men instantly fumbled with their weapons in pain before dropping them to the ground where they shattered as yellow sparks escaped.

"You two can take care of the rest." She dismissed her Pokémon back into her ball and turned to look through the window. The torriental rain outside looked more calming when she wasn't getting battered by it. She went to comb her fingers through her hair. Damn, she really wasn't looking forward to the damage that hair had done. Something was wrong. She was literally drenched just a second ago. Why were her hair and clothes suddenly dry?

Meanwhile, Codo and Drew were plo wing through the building's security easily.

"**Flame Wheel**!" Chimchar rolled in a ball of fire, instantly knocking away most of the ground dwelling Ratatta and Bidoof like bowling pins.

"**Ice Beam**!" Buizel's attack did the same to most of the aerial Zubat, Pidgey and occasional Golbat. Codo was surprised these moves were one-shotting their opponents.

A small pidove came in to deliver a quick blow, but Buizel managed to deflect its hit with a faster Ice Punch. Another round of rattata came charging in all at once, their fangs glistening with white energy. However, all it took was a few flicks of Sonic Boom's energy waves to knock them all down.

In absolutely no time at all, the entire room of opponents was taken down. It was a shame, Buizel sighed. There was absolutely nothing fun or exciting about taking down a room full of fodder.

"Okay then…" Misdreavus was called back out. "Be an absolute darling and use **Imprison** on all these people, 'kay?"

The ghost Pokemon nodded and opened its mouth to let out a ghostly melody that traveled all over the room. Suddenly, giant red Xs appeared on every suited guard, binding their arms and sealing their mouths shut with a smaller X.

"Hey," Maran kneeled down and pulled up the chin of one squirming man. "You mind if I go further through?" The man squirmed and let out something that only came out as angry mumbles. Not like Maran cared, she continued the conversation regardless. "Yeah? I _can?_ Oh, and I can take your key card t_oo_? You're quite the gentleman," she said over his obvious angry muffled groans. "Come on guys," she waved to Codo and Drew and walked through the next set of sliding doors.

Codo caught up first. "Hey, what was up with that back there? Why'd those guys go down so easily?"

"Isn't it obvious? Gai-earth's guards only have Pokémon on them because it's mandatory. _Anyone_ who's trained their own Pokémon for more than five seconds could tear them flat. Once you actually disarm them of their guns, they're like bugs."

It was as good an answer as any, Codo supposed.

They walked the narrow and empty hallways for a while, checking each room they passed by for anything. Strangely, the place was empty. Numerous boardrooms lay undisturbed, still dark. Coffee rooms and one large kitchen were also deserted but stocked up with plentiful amounts of food. Even the locker rooms were devoid of anything beyond dirty gym socks and empty deodorant cartridges. This place wasn't forcibly emptied like the factory at Paternica. It seemed like every employee here was just somewhere else at the moment.

"Do not enter: Authorized personnel only." Maran looked at the sign pasted neatly on a thick metal door at the end of one of the building's hallways, narrow-eyed. "Well then." She turned to Codo. "Sir, I hereby authorize you to enter this room."

"Aha," he said as his face brightened. He looked at Drew, mischievously. "And Professor Pine, with my new authorization, I authorize _you_ to enter with me."

"But I _can't_ go without authorizing _this_ young lady to come with us. Maran, would you do me the honor of letting me authorize you?" He politely took a bow.

"I would be absolutely honored." Maran slid the card key she had stolen through the vertical slot on the wall.

Suddenly, the red light over the door turned green, and what sounded like a mechanical whirring inside the door began and shortly ended in a near silent click. Slowly, the door creaked open by itself, only gradually revealing the contents of the next room.

"Whoa." Drew let out an appalled gasp as he saw what was in this chamber.

Large glass tubes full of a blue-green liquid were being streamed into a smaller, cylindrical machine. They could see through a window in that machine that the liquid was being sloshed around inside before being transported into smaller barrels. There, the barrels traveled quickly on a conveyor belt and were taken out of the room and out of their sight.

"There's no question as to what this is." Maran closely examined the glass tubes before taking a quick picture with a camera. "This is Terra-Vitae, in its natural form."

Codo took a closer look at the tube. He had never seen it in this stage before, aside from text books back in high school. "From here, they'll ship it to a purifying facility, like the one in my town, so they can chemically change it so it'll be ready for direct use, right?" The liquid in this tube was much lighter than the man's eyes were back in the hospital, but it was starting to make sense. Maybe he had been poisoned by it. He knew that extensive testing had never been done on Terra-Vitae's affect on actual living people.

"If I could just get a sample of this." Drew's mind was in another place. Normal people, and even most scientists and researchers weren't allowed to have any of the substance in their labs. Anyone caught with even a drop were immediately arrested and tried for tampering with government property. _That_ was how much control of Terra-Vitae the government had. It was illegal, but if he could just examine a tiny bit, there'd be so much he could learn.

As the other two were looking intently at the tube, Maran wandered off to the far end of the room. There, she found a wide rectangular platform beyond a steel fence that reached up into the ceiling. She would bet her bottom dollar that this elevator led down to the mines. Could the facility's workers have gone down there? Curiously, she slid her keycard down the horizontal slot. However, all she got was a red light and a quiet buzzer, indicating that she had the wrong key. "What a shame." She put the keycard back into her pocket –just in case- and walked back the other two. "I've found out where all the mooks here went."

"Really, where?"

"See that platform over there? The one behind that fence? That's an elevator, I'm like 97% sure that there's a 100% chance all those people are down there, right now.

There was a loud click from the direction of the elevator, then the sound of gears churning into each other. Suddenly, the entire rectangular platform went down into the shaft, getting lit up, occasionally, by the pair of fluorescent lights that were attached every few yards to the walls.

"Looks like we're going to find out." Then, Maran sat on the ground and crossed her legs.

"Getting comfy? They might be coming up any minute." Codo brought out a hand to pull her back up, but she smacked it away.

"You realize how deep those shafts go, right? We'll be waiting here for a while."

And indeed, a _while _went by. First 5, then 10, then 30, and then two hours dragged on. Codo and Drew tried to pass the time as best as they could, and that included several dozen games of rock-paper-scissors, a push-up contest, and more than enough sorting of their supplies. Codo even managed to make everyone simple sandwiches from the leftovers of the night before.

"Oh my God, how deep does that thing even go?" Codo let out a sigh. It felt like he had been there forever.

"Well, the hole's pretty deep, and the actual elevator's slow. Just give it…" Suddenly, they could hear the mechanical whirring of the elevator as it slowly climbed back up.

Quickly, they all hid behind a large machine, poking their heads out of the side to see who was coming up. The gates of the elevator opened slowly and creakily, but the three were shocked. Only three people had walked out, not an entire building's worth, as they had expected.

"About time," the first person, a woman in her twenties with bangs covering the top halves of her eyes, walked off the platform, stretching her arms above her head. "They really need to make those things faster."

"Yeah, Enma thinks so too!" A shorter, more ecstatic man jumped from behind. "Enma needs to get back to work on the specimen."

The woman looked at him, annoyed, though she wasn't the one who spoke.

"Please stop talking like that." A tall, lanky man with combed back hair stepped forward. "A supposed professional like yourself shouldn't be talking in third-person. It's unbecoming."

"Enma can talk whatever way he wants!"

Drew grimaced as Maran pretended to gag. What the heck was wrong with that guy?

"If you don't mind Enma, Enma will go start dissecting that Pokémon."

"You go do that." The woman rolled her eyes as she headed in the other direction. "Mr. Claymore," she said to the tall man. "Please make sure you feed our 'rampaging beast' outside." She put up air-quotes as she spoke.

Codo quickly pulled Maran and Drew back. "She's not talking about that Steelix, right?"

"Well, joke's gonna be on her," Maran deadpanned. "They'll be surprised when they see that thing knocked out."As soon as the woman and the tall man, Mr. Claymore, went through the sliding doors, Man stood up and made a beeline for the doors.

"Wait, wait, wait," Codo protested as he followed her. "You're not going to just attack those two, are you?"

"What? You think I'm smart enough to take advantage of an opportunity to steal their card keys and head down the elevator myself?" Sarcasm was practically painted on her lips. "I wouldn't do something like that, it's almost criminal." Her head cocked up. "Oh wait…" With that, she stepped on the black panel in front of the sliding doors and walked on by.

Codo quickly followed. "I'm just saying, those people are different, I can smell it. Right Drew?" He looked back, and suddenly realized that his nerd friend was gone. "Where'd… Maran, I think he left." He turned around, only to see that she had disappeared as well. "Damn it, you really need to stop doing that!"


	6. Flame Bullet

**Chapter 6: Flame Bullet**

"He's not here either," Drew spat out as he slammed open another door.

That freaky scientist had mentioned something about dissecting a Pokémon here. But that struck him as unusual. Why would the workers of Gai-Earth want to dissect _any_ living thing? Wasn't their job to make sure everything ran smoothly with the extraction of Terra-Vitae? There must've been something odd about the Pokémon here, he thought as he slammed open another door. Not to his surprise, it was a_nother _empty boardroom. "I swear," he spat out. "The boardrooms here take up like, 90% of the building."

Fine, he decided. If he couldn't find out where that man was, he'd make him come right out of his hole. "Chimchar," he said to his newly released monkey. "Go make a mess."

It answered its trainer with a confused expression and a turned head.

"I know it seems rash." In reality, it _was_ pretty rash and uncharacteristic on his part. But he just wanted to know what that weird scientist was up to. "Just do it, alright."

Chimchar simply shrugged before curling into a ball of fire and bouncing all over the room. In no time at all, seats had caught on fire and scorch marks lined the walls in every which way. The fire sprinklers on top of the room went off, looking outside, Drew also saw that water was raining down on the hallway as well.

Gradually, the rain brought down Chimchar's flame wheel until it was reduced to a tiny ember on its bottom.

"Enma demands to know what is going on!" Drew grinned from ear to ear as he heard the voice shout from down the hallway.

Jackpot.

He stepped out, putting his hands in his pockets while looking intently at the man. The sprinklers were still on, sending a constant drizzle of water raining down. It was perfect. _Now_ was the time to act like a badass. With an upward glance, he spoke. "Sorry about that, a little birdie told me you were doing an experiment here. I just wanted to check it out."

"You did this?" Enma pointed discriminately at the boy. "Enma was just about to work on dissecting that mythical being."

"Mythical _being_? Oh, I wanna know all about that."

"No, _never!_ It's Enma's!" He saw the man reach into his coat pocket to pull out a blue Pokéball scrawled with red writing on the top half. He tossed the ball with such force that it landed far behind Drew. A Magmar, a man-sized duck like creature, stepped out of the light and looked dopily at Drew and his Chimchar. "Magmar, Enma requires that you use **Flamethrower **on them, now!"

The Magmar's cheeks puffed up. With one forward lunge, a large, concentrated stream of flame was shot towards them.

Drew didn't have time to think. He would need to do s_omething_ to minimize the damage from the attack. "Try to stop it with **Ember**!" Though the Chimchar was able to build up the small flames in his cheeks, when he tried to expel them, the trickling water from above reduced them to but a small cinder of what they once were. A second later, Chimchar was hit with the full force of the beam and was sent flying back against the wall all the way on the other side of the hallway.

"_This is bad," _Drew said to himself after watching the spectacle. "_Chimchar's weak fire attacks won't work here. Gunk Shot won't do much good either. He can't Dig through the tiles on the floor._"Drew didn't like getting up close for fights, but… "**Flame Wheel**!"

The Chimchar complied, the fire on his hind flaring up before wrapping itself around the fire monkey's body. Drew could see, even as Chimchar rolled across the wet floor, that the move was weakening already. Still if he could get just one hit…

"**Psychic**!" Magmar put its open palm towards the rolling flame. Suddenly, the fire evaporated, and Chimchar was brought into the air, helplessly dangling his legs.

And then… Drew felt himself being lifted off the ground as well. The attack had _him_ too?! "That's… that's cheap," he shouted. Talking was difficult, it was like someone was trying to hold his jaw shut while keeping him from moving the rest of his body.

"You delayed Enma's experiment." The man's voice was darker and more malevolent now. "You will pay." He threw his hand to the side, and suddenly Drew and Chimchar were both sent flying straight through the door to the next room.

The two were lifted and slammed against the next wall again. And again. And again. Damn it, his vision was getting blurry, and he could begin to taste blood in his mouth. He couldn't imagine what his starter was feeling. He looked down, to see the monkey tottering to its feet. Poor guy, they couldn't stand a chance against this man, yet Chimchar was still trying to fight.

"Finish them both, with a **Flamethrower**." Drew watched as Magmar's cheeks puffed up again. He could barely move, and if that attack hit him, he'd be a goner. Still, Chimchar would probably survive, Pokémon were built like tanks, after all.

Suddenly, he saw Chimchar's rear light up again, though this time the flames were a brighter yellow instead of the regular red. The yellow flames cloaked themselves around the monkey's body as it rolled forward and tackled Magmar right in the beak. The bigger fire type's built up cheek flames sputtered out afterwards, and Drew could tell that it was hurt, given how it was tenderly rubbing its head.

Enma was practically having a breakdown as this happened. He ripped off his lab coat and stomped on it in a fit of rage. "That's it! Magmar, kill them. Kill them both! **Flame Bullet**!"

The Magmar's cheeks puffed up again, and Chimchar charged forwards in its powered-up Blaze mode to stop the attack. However, the Magmar shot out pellet sized balls of fire at the other two. This attack's charge up time was much faster than Flamethrower's, and Chimchar's Flame Wheel attack instantly dissipated as a few of the pellets hit it and sent it flying backwards. Drew too was part of the spray. He could feel the burning hot flame balls hitting him, burning straight through his skin.

The pain was too much now, his legs gave way and, in an instant, he found himself hitting the ground, face first. His mind couldn't form the simplest of thoughts through the pain buzzing everywhere on his body. "Chimchar, run," he managed to spit out.

The monkey looked at him, horrified. Looking at its attackers, the Chimchar took a deep breath and charged towards the Magmar. It was terrified, but this was all it could do to protect its trainer.

"**Psychic,**"

Chimchar once again felt the attack restraining its body and lifting it into the air. No, no this wasn't what it wanted. It needed to protect its Master, its trainer, its friend. Suddenly, it felt a mental tug. With another thought, that tug got stronger and stronger. Suddenly, he felt the force associated with that tug enter its body. Chimchar felt the feeling return to its finger tips, then its arms, and very soon, its entire body came back. It dropped down to the ground, and without a moment's notice, it charged forwards and jumped on Magmar's face, latching onto its head for dear life.

Chimchar didn't know why, but a fire was building up in its lungs. This fire wasn't the same one it felt whenever it used Ember. And it was pretty sure that wasn't what a Flamethrower attack was supposed to feel like. Still, Chimchar followed its instincts and let the fire loose.

It didn't come out in one gigantic burst, no. It came out as small, concentrated pellets of flame, entirely identical to Magmar's past attack. Every single one of the bullets exploded in Magmar's face, and it quickly fell down from the force. Knocked out.

Drew couldn't believe his eyes. He managed to ignore the searing pain long enough to raise his head. His Chimchar had just learned to use an improvised attack after only seeing its opponent use it once. This wasn't a move that someone could find in a textbook somewhere, this was something hidden.

"No, no!" Enma recalled his Magmar as he stepped back in fear. "You… you can't." He went to run away, but slipped on the wet, slippery tile and hit the wall with his head, getting knocked out as well.

Chimchar jumped up in excitement. He tottered over to Drew and gave him a soft shove. However, the trainer didn't respond, though he was breathing, his chest rose only occasionally, and in small increments. All Chimchar could do was watch.

Suddenly, in the air, it smelled something. It was entirely out of place in this facility. Instead of smelling like harsh chemicals, or lemon scented disinfectant, this thing smelled fresh, almost like a fresh meadow of flowers. Quickly, Chimchar followed the smell all the way to a room in back. In a steel cage was a small white furred creature that looked like it had a small, light-green bush growing on its back. Chimchar's fight must have shocked the thing, because as soon as it walked through the doorway, it cowered in the corner of the cage, hiding its face.

Chimchar quickly undid the latch keeping the cage closed and backed off to let the creature out. Still, Chimchar wondered, was that thing a Pokémon? He'd never seen anything like that before, though it felt familiar. Slowly, the creature crawled out and sniffed its surroundings before curling itself into a ball. Chimchar let out gentle cries to show the Pokémon(?) that it was friendly. It seemed to work because, after a while, it poked its head out and proceeded to sniff the monkey. Chimchar let out a screech, trying to tell the strange creature what had happened.

The thing's face lit up like a Christmas tree, and it immediately scurried down the hallway. Finally, when it got to Drew's slowly breathing body, it climbed on top of his head and took a deep breath. The pink flowers on the creature's bushy back lit up and swirled in green light. Drew's body was swathed in the light and, as Chimchar got closer, he could see some of the more noticeable burns on his face and arms disappearing. When the light disappeared, the white hedgehog's legs gave out, and it rested its snout in Drew's head. Still, the monkey could see that Drew was breathing more regularly now. He was still unconscious, but Chimchar supposed that the move that creature used only healed wounds, not stamina. With a sigh of relief, Chimchar stood in front of the open doorway. There he would wait, guarding the area until his trainer got back up.

* * *

Codo knew better than to yell out Maran's name in a potentially hostile area. Still, he couldn't stop himself from looking in every nook and cranny for the girl. She seemed to have a bad habit of leaving their small crew as she pleased.

"Are you an intruder," asked a voice from behind.

Codo immediately froze. That sounded like the tall man who came out of the elevator. He quickly spun around, to look. Indeed, it was him, the man had a large bag in his left hand that he slumped over his shoulder. He looked at Codo, impatiently, waiting for an answer.

"Didn't you get the memo? We are currently working on a way to efficiently deal with the Steelix dilemma."

"We already took it down," Codo replied, simply.

"Is that so?" The man -Claymore was his name, if Codo remembered correctly- repositioned his glasses with his right palm. "How did you get past security?"

"You security isn't very good at their job either."

"Then you must be quite the battler."

Codo watched the man pull out a black Pokéball with yellow lines decorating the top. Before he could reach for his, the man threw his ball at his face with such force that Codo was knocked backwards. In the resulting flash, a Mankey jumped out and slashed at his midsection with its tiny claws.

"The one, sure-fire way to deal with a pesky trainer is by keeping him from calling forth his Pokémon. Without it, there is no way you can defend yourself."

"Yeah," he spat out questioningly. "Well…" he reached for his pocket, but there was nothing there. His Pokéball was gone. His head shot up just in time to see Claymore's Mankey handing the man his Pokéball as well as several other things, including his cell phone and wallet. It had stolen his property without him even noticing.

"Codo Amodor: license issued 8/30/4852. You will turn 21 on 4/27/4855. Your address is 2092 Milky Lane, Paternica Town in Sinnoh. Male; brown eyes; height 5'8. Licenses are a great way to learn about others, yes?" He shoved the wallet and phone into his coat pocket, but kept the Pokéball in his free hand. He snapped his fingers, and then ordered his Mankey to use Karate Chop on the boy.

The small pig nosed creature charged at Codo, slamming a glowing hand right where the scratch wounds from earlier had been. He coughed out blood as he fell backwards again. There was no way he could actually overpower a Pokémon. If only Buizel was out, she would definitely be able to take out that Mankey. "Buizel, if you can hear me, get out!"

Claymore looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "You can't seriously think that your Pokémon can release itself from its ball. The idea is simply preposterous. Mankey, take out this fool with another **Karate Chop**."

This time, Codo felt the hard hand of the Mankey slam into his neck, still reeling from the attack, he managed to drunkenly stumble to the wall to support his weight. He could hardly stand right now. "Buizel, you have to do it!"

"Mankey, one more move ought to finish him off for good. **Rock Smash**."

Both of Mankey's hands became white with energy. Interlinking them together, it slammed them into Codo's ribs, and he went sliding down the hall. "Buizel!"

"**Rock Smash**, this time on his head."

The whole world seemed to move in slow motion, he could see the Mankey running towards him again, hands interlinking themselves as it jumped into the air to deliver the finishing blow. He closed his eyes, anticipating the pain, though all he heard was the sound of something shattering into tiny fragments, and it wasn't his skull. He looked in front of his to see his Buizel, the top part of her arm encased in ice as smaller chunks lay around her, broken on the floor. She currently was holding back Mankey's Rock Smash attack with her forearm.

Codo couldn't help but ooze out a smile. She had defended him by taking the attack. Currently, she was pushing back the still struggling Mankey. Ice appeared on her left paw, and she swung it at her opponent, who fell back in pain.

Buizel opened his mouth in awe. He didn't know how she escaped on her own, but it didn't matter. Pokéballs only rarely had these types of glitches. He shook those thoughts off. Now definitely wasn't the time to look a gift horse in the mouth. His opponent would have to go down before he could relax. "Take it down," was all he could say.

Buizel couldn't have looked happier. She sped off towards the Mankey with Aqua Jet, and made it go rolling back. Then, both of her tails shined in white light. She flicked off countless beams of light energy at the Mankey. After she tired of doing that, she charged into to deliver a combo of blows with Ice Punch, finishing off with an uppercut that sent the foe into the air.

She quickly dusted her hands off before crossing them. Codo couldn't have been happier. By all means, that was probably the quickest, most efficient victory Buizel ever had.

"Boy," he heard the man say. "You said you defeated the Steelix outside, correct?"

"And if I did?"

"If that's the case," he threw the bag he had slumped over his shoulder to the downed Mankey. Candy, wrapped in blue plastic spilled out, and the Mankey quickly went to work devouring the sweets relentlessly.

Codo opened his eyes in shock. That couldn't be right. Those were Rare Candies. The World Government had full control of the production of them, and they kept a tight lock on its circulation. Normal people weren't able to just get entire sackfuls of the stuff. Legally, at least.

The Mankey crunched another candy in its mouth before, reaching for another one to consume.

Gai-Earth was somehow strongly affiliated with the Government, there was no other way that man could have a bag of so many Rare Candies. It wouldn't have been a stretch to say that the bag contained over 200 pieces. The implications behind this were astounding, Codo gulped. Was the Government somehow connected to what had happened at Paternica.

Mankey's entire body turned a bright white. Its form changed as the light dimmed. Instead of the small, fur ball that was there before, a _larger_ furball that seemed to have boxing gloves over its hands appeared. That Mankey had evolved into a Primeape, though its evolution didn't stop it from consuming more of the candy. He had to do something before that thing got stronger. "Buizel, use **Aqua Jet**, now!"

Buizel sped off not a moment later at a blinding speed. However, the Primeape simply punched the speeding missile away without another thought. That wasn't even a move it had used, just a regular punch.

"Behold the power of Rare Candies," Claymore said as Primeape finished devouring the entire bag.

Angrily, the Primeape ripped open the bag. It was still hungry, it wanted more. It noticed Buizel, who was on a knee, breathing heavily in a corner. Primeape stomped its feet on the ground as it glared intently at the water type.

The entire time, Codo couldn't think. That thing had eaten an entire bag full of Rare Candies, which meant its power had risen exponentially. He knew, from back in school, that the Primeape family was monstrous. Once they spotted an enemy, they wouldn't stop pounding on it until it was dead. And now the Primeape had its sights on Buizel. He broke out into a cold sweat.

This was the day he was going to die.


End file.
